[Onthebarricades] CHINA: Thousands resist eviction in Inner Mongolia

[Andy]

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20070616204453174

      Inner Mongolia, China: Thousands of residents resist eviction by riot police     
            Saturday, June 16 2007 @ 08:44 PM PDT
            Contributed by: Anonymous
            Views: 148  
             
            According to a New Tang Dynasty TV Station (NTDTV) report, on June 8, a battle between riot police and more than a thousand local residents in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, left twenty people injured, with three critically wounded, and three more arrested.

            Conflict in Inner Mongolia
            By Tan Hohua, The Epoch Times
            June 15, 2007 

            (www.ntdtv.com) 

            According to a New Tang Dynasty TV Station (NTDTV) report, on June 8, a battle between riot police and more than a thousand local residents in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, left twenty people injured, with three critically wounded, and three more arrested. 

            In order to secure land to build a Genghis Khan-themed square in a residential district in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, the Chinese communist regime evicted more than three thousand families from their homes. 

            According to Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, there are 13,000 families located in the district; most of them are employees of state-owned railway companies. According to local residents, the regime only offers 1,300 yuan (approximately US$168) per square meter for their relocation, far below the market value of 3,500 yuan (approximately US$454) per square meter. 

            According to the Information Center, the conflict began when the riot police and demolition workers started to clear the fences around the district. 

            "The police beat them and twisted their arms until they broke. An old man stood in front of a police car to prevent it from leaving. People demanded justice, but the police didn't care," one female local resident told NTDTV. 

            "The city government played deaf. We called newspapers and radio stations, but no one came. The government called the local hospitals and told them not to treat injured civilians. We had to go to a hospital very far away." 

            The conflict triggered thousands of locals protested and blocked several highways. It affected at least five highways in the city of Hohhot and caused traffic jam from 12 noon until six in the evening. 

            Illegal land seizures have become commonplace in mainland China, but mainland media have been forbidden to report this topic. 

            Please view NTDTV's video report at NTDTV.com:
            http://www.ntdtv.com/xtr/en/2007/06/14/a_49889.html 
           
     

http://chinaworker.info/en/content/news/206/

Residents fight forced evictions in Inner Mongolia
Wed, 13 Jun 2007.

5,000 railway workers and their families confront police in the city of Hohhot in China's latest outbreak of unrest

Thousands of workers and local residents clashed with armed police last Friday in a struggle against eviction from their apartments - earmarked for demolition by city government. This outbreak of mass civil disobedience in the nominally 'autonomous' region of Inner Mongolia, coming just days after violent protests in Chongqing, Zhengzhou and in an ethnic Tibetan region of Sichuan province, makes it hard to believe official claims that 'mass incidents' are less frequent in China this year. 
According to a report from the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, based in Hong Kong, about 500 police plus workers from a construction company faced some 5,000 residents determined to protest a compensation offer set at just 40 per cent of the city's average housing price. At least 20 people were reported injured, three were arrested and several police vehicles were damaged as the residents fought for most of last Friday to prevent the destruction of a fence around their community, which lies adjacent to the city's main railway station. Most of the residents of the community - numbering 13,000 - are railway workers and their families. 

An officer from one of Hohhot's police stations told the German press agency, DPA, that six police vehicles were damaged. The city government declined to comment on the incident. The residents blocked several roads for about six hours according to reports. 


The action comes on the heels of a report from an international housing rights group that catalogued serious abuses in the redevelopment of Beijing and other cities in China. These abuses included giving little or no notice of eviction, false promises of compensation, violence and intimidation, the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) said in a report. 

"In Beijing, and in China more generally, the process of demolition and eviction is characterized by arbitrariness and lack of due process," the COHRE report noted.

Working class unity in struggle


Hohhot is the provincial capital of the nominally 'autonomous' province of Inner Mongolia. The incident comes as the city gears up to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, a sensitive issue especially among the younger generation of ethnic Mongolians who have become more outspoken in their hostility to continued Han Chinese domination. Mongolians make up less than a third of the population of the province, which is also home to many smaller ethnic groups. The province's economy has boomed in recent years on the back of the surge in prices for coal and other resources. But this newfound wealth have been pocketed by a business and political elite, with ordinary workers and farmers seeing few benefits, while the region's environmental problems have only been exacerbated.

The protests in Hohhot underline the need for the unity of the poor and oppressed of all ethnic groups in order to stand up to the injustices of capitalism, official corruption and police brutality. 

The clashes in Hohhot come at the end of a week that saw more than 2,000 residents fight with police in China's largest city, Chongqing, after a flower seller was beaten by police. A similar incident involving a young female student who had her teeth knocked out by city inspectors triggered a riot by several thousand students and workers in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province. Meanwhile in the southwestern province of Sichuan, violence erupted as Tibetan farmers tried to protest against a mining company's encroachment on local land. The Chinese government have released figures for 2006 claiming to show a decline of about one-third in the number of so-called 'mass incidents' (protests involving 100 people or more). These events - all in the same week - do not lend much credibility to official claims. Many other incidents are never reported.

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=75815
Chinese residents clash with police 
Thursday, June 14, 2007
BEIJING - Reuters


  About 5,000 people clashed with police in northern China last week during a protest against forced relocation, a Hong Kong human rights watchdog said yesterday. At least 20 people were injured, two women seriously, and three were arrested during the incident in the Inner Mongolia region last Friday, in which three police cars were smashed, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said. 

  Thousands blocked a highway in the city of Hohhot to protest against inadequate compensation for their homes' demolition to make way for a new plaza, it said. "We are dealing with this carefully, but the situation is now under control," Meng Shude, spokesman for the Communist Party in Inner Mongolia, told Reuters. 

  The incident comes as Hohhot gears up to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.Chinese have become increasingly bold about protesting over home demolitions, pollution and corrupt land grabs as China's booming cities and factories swallow up neighborhoods and farmland.


http://www.chinapost.com.tw/international/112310.htm

5,000 clash with police in north China

Thursday, June 14, 2007
BEIJING, Reuters
About 5,000 people clashed with police in northern China last week during a protest against forced relocation, a Hong Kong human rights watchdog said on Wednesday. 
At least 20 people were injured, two women seriously, and three were arrested during the incident in the Inner Mongolia region last Friday, in which three police cars were smashed, the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said. 

Thousands blocked a highway in the city of Hohhot to protest against inadequate compensation for their homes' demolition to make way for a new plaza, it said. 

"We're dealing with this carefully, but the situation is now under control," Meng Shude, spokesman for the Communist Party in Inner Mongolia, told Reuters. 

The incident comes as Hohhot gears up to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. 

Chinese have become increasingly bold about protesting over home demolitions, pollution and corrupt land grabs as China's booming cities and factories swallow up neighbourhoods and farmland. 

Thousands marched in the streets this month in the southeastern seaside city of Xiamen to demand that plans for a paraxylene plant be scrapped. 

Villagers in Guangxi rioted and burned cars in May to protest overly strict enforcement of family planning policies. 

Official figures show the number of so-called "mass incidents" was 23,000 in 2006, compared to about 10,000 in 1994, but down from 74,000 in 2004.
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